Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet
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The Right Honourable The Lord Thomson of Fleet GBE |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Roy Herbert Thomson June 5, 1894 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | August 4, 1976 (aged 82) London, England |
| Children | Kenneth Roy Thomson, Mrs Irma Brydson, and Mrs Audrey Campbell |
| Known for | Successful newspaper and other media entrepreneur. |
Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, GBE (June 5, 1894 – August 4, 1976) was a Canadian newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street.
He first came to prominence when he was selling radios in Ontario, and to give his customers more programmes to listen to, decided to launch his own radio station. He then moved into newspapers, buying The Scotsman as a salute to his Scottish ancestors, followed by the first Scottish independent television channel. By 1966, he owned both The Times and The Sunday Times.
Roy Thomson was born on June 5, 1894 in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Herbert Thomson, a telegraphist turned barber who worked at Toronto's Grosvenor Hotel, and English-born Alice Coombs. They lived at 32 Monteith Street, off Church Street. Herbert was born in Toronto to parents Hugh Thomson and Mary Nichol Sylvester. Hugh was one of ten children of George Thomson, son of Archibald Thomson, who emigrated from Westerkirk, Scotland to Canada in 1773. Archibald was brother of David Thomson, first European settler of Scarborough, Ontario.
During World War I, Roy Thomson attended a business college, and owing to bad eyesight he was rejected by the army. He went to Manitoba after the war to become a farmer, but was unsuccessful. Thomson travelled to Toronto again, where he held several jobs at different times; one of which was selling radios. However, he found selling radios difficult because the only district left for him to work in was Northern Ontario. In order to give his potential customers something to listen to he undertook to establish a radio station. By quite a stroke of luck, he was able to procure a radio frequency and transmitter for $201. CFCH officially went on the air in North Bay, Ontario on March 3, 1931. He sold radios for quite some time after that, but his focus gradually shifted to his radio station, rather than the actual radios.
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